Margaret Carnegie
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Margaret Frances Carnegie AO (14 March 1910 – 5 August 2002) was an Australian writer, art patron and collector.
Margaret Frances Carnegie was born in Melbourne on 14 March 1910, daughter of Henry George Allen and Amelia Burberry.[1] She was educated at Lauriston Girls' School and then a finishing school in Switzerland.[2] She married Douglas Howard Carnegie on 11 March 1931 at Scots' Church, Melbourne.[3]
Desmond Digby's portrait of Carnegie was a finalist for the 1966 Archibald Prize. It was acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991.[4]
Carnegie was a major collector of Australian modernist art, including works by Heide Circle artists Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester and Gray Smith.[5][6] She opened Gray Smith’s 1966 exhibition Canberry Paintings: The First 100 Years in Canberra.[7]
The 1976 film, Mad Dog Morgan, was based on her book, Morgan: The Bold Bushranger.[8]
Carnegie was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 1985 Australia Day Honours.[9] She was promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to art, literature and to local history".[10]
Carnegie was awarded an honorary doctor of letters by Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.[11][12] The university holds the Margaret Carnegie Collection of Australiana within its archives.[13]
Carnegie died on 5 August 2002.[14] She was predeceased by her husband in 1998.[2] Her son, Roderick Carnegie, and three daughters survived her.[14]
